It's very quite about the Carnac sailing event I must say.
Any one going?
We'll be going and there should be a Viper 1-up too. Last year was fun with all the F16, it would be a pity if there would be less this year....

Regards,
Gill

I'm sorry Gill,

I had considered bringing two Stealths this year as Robert (15 yrs old youngest son) is now racing my old boat. However, there really is no way we can make it this year.

Hope you all have fun anyway! I really enjoyed last year despite the variable weather.

Sorry , I will also not go, there is coming up to much for the coming months so i had to make choices. Carnac is not one of the choices.
I prefer going to the Global Challenge in the US and working towards this. Together with some A-class racing there is not much time left. The card with points is almost empty, so i have to save a few the coming weeks.

Hans

Recognise the Cap
http://falmouthbassboat.blogspot.com/
Sorry, not this year Gill

Eurocat is one of our biggest races and it's over and done with again for this year. We finished 25th in the C1 class.

First day we were 21st and we wanted to finish in the first 20 boats but due to bad light wind tactics we lost some final places on Sunday.

There were 2 other F16's present, French Viper sailors and they did extremely well! The 2-up team finished 2nd and the 1-up guy finished 16th. Well done!

Our full report, the results and some pictures can be seen on our blog!

Very nice report on Carnac girl !

And WOW !

The Viper F16 sailed by Thareau/Le Coublet 2nd behind Sproat/Burke on a Spitfire !

And ahead of Yves Loday (4th) on I assume a Shadow.

Well done indeed !

Major promo for the Viper F16 I say. Especially after the Aussie F16 title had also gone to this design just recently.

Hopefully, this will make an impression and see mr Ferrari (himeself 17th on the Viper F16 1-up) sell a few more F16's to French sailors.

Also nice to read up on your other adventures Kathleen. Nice blog

Wouter

Well done Gill and Kathleen!

So what rating were the two Vipers sailing off? 104?

The did sail with the 104 rating. (On the application and in there sails they were F16 however - so publicity anyway).

I can imagine an F16 with enough weight (to fit the 104) is the way to go in France if you want to reach/sell quite a few boats the coming year(s).

Chris Sproat would be sailing this weekends 104 championships in France on a Viper rumours go....

Anyway we had a great time (flat seas and big winds) so put this event in your agenda for next year ! :-)

Gill

Thanks Kathleen, very nice report.

can of worms!!
An F16 with a 104 rating
say NO more
Your Blog is absolutely fab.

The Viper is obviously a seriously good two handed boat with its greater volume and probably the only one of the current F16's which could handle the 104 extra weight but all that extra weight must bring it into Hobie FX1 similarity.

A question then if the Hobie and Vipers hulls are of similar weight then we must be getting into the Hobies nemesis that of the single handers can't right it from a capsize. Has anyone tried righting the Viper single handed ? its not really a problem as one of our FX1 owners has fitted a righting pole which works a dream but just adds more weight again.

I can't imagine it being a problem with the Viper. I'm right at minimum weight for the FX at 157lbs and use a bag, and if the wind is up I don't even need to fill it up to right the FXone. Most of the time, then theres those weird scenario's where it just doesn't want to come up.

My hulls each weighed 78lbs, haven't weighed the complete boat either but Hobie claims 323lbs, uni+spi. The Viper is almost 40lbs lighter, and other than the length most of the other dimesions are real close.

Yes but ! its those weird scenarios that catch you out. One of our club members was run over by a fishing trawler when he couldn't get his FX1 up, about your weight and with a righting bag. A very scary moment and could have cost a life

its probably not the right thread to discuss this aspect but its the very bouyant hulls which makes things much more difficult for the single hander in righting the boat, they do not sink enough to get the COG down far enough to pull the heavy top hull over the point of balance.

We are guessing (gut feeling) our way into errornous conclusions again.

There is no reason why they F16 designs "can handle the additional weight" of the Viper. My own Taipan F16 (homebuild) is 121 kg in sloop mode. How much difference can a few additional kilograms make ? The first Stealths were not close to minimum weight either and that didn't hold them back.

The reason why the FX_one is hard to right has alot more to do with the fact that the FX-one mast section is heavier then the F16 mast sections. Not so much with the weight of the platform. Yes, 250 grams difference per meter already results in a 9 kg righting weigth difference. Compare that to a 10 kg difference in the hulls only accounting for 1.84 kg difference in righting weight when the mast tip just clears the water surface. A factor 5 difference !

If the Viper F16 is 20 kg heavier then minimum weight and weigths ready-to-sail in SLOOP mode 127 kg and all the additional weight (20kg) is located around the hulls, then it will take only 3.7 kg more weight on the righting line to recover it from a capsize when compared to a minimum weight F16. The case with the FX-one (that does have 35 kg hulls compared to 23 kg F16 hulls) requires then 11.2 additional kilogram in body mass while righting. A number confirmed by personal experience.

There is not much difference between the Viper and "normal" F16's at all. Apart from the weight felt when lifting the boat and maybe some top line speed. There is certainly very little difference in righting weigths unless a carbon mnast is used on the "normal" F16's

Wouter

Hi Kathleen/Gill,

You must have had some fun, 21 knots! that's a lot. I've never seen more than 19 on my GPS. Can you send me the gps track?. of course these wild claims have to be verified

Were the other boats around you travelling at the same speed?

Geert

Geert,

Enclosed the track. As you will see the speed was measured on a reach. With the spinnaker the speeds where a lower.

There were some spitfires doing the same (could be a little slower, could be a little faster) on the reach. Downwind it was the same (but I didn't have a lot of time to look!).

Did you sail lately?

Regards,
Gill

Hi Gill,

Will have a look at the track, tanks.
Did sail 2 times now, not too well; either not enough wind or enough wind but nasty waves that prevents us from wiring downwind. To make sure we would not get into a good position I messed up a tack 2 times . Guess i still have to wake up after the winter Break.

Geert

Hi Gill,

Thanks to the Carnac report. Sounds like you had fun. I was so bold to take your GPS Track and analysed it. I guess your device is a Garmin etrex or similar device from Garmin, which makes some rounding error. Your best speed for 10 second was 16.3kts +-0.8kts. Sounds less spectacular then 21, but is still fast. For example, the best 10sec speed on a T, we loged so far, was 18kts.

Cheers,

Klaus

Hi Klaus,

I'm using a geonaute watch (Decathlon) and analysed the file with gpsar. You are correct about the 10 sec (I was a little exited about the 21 knots for 2 seconds.... :-) )

Gill

My garmin often recorded more than 25knots on the Tornado. Usually when we did jibes or tacks and moved around. Trying to find highest average speed resulted in more sober numbers
Some F18 guy just claimed average speed of 16 knots downwind in 4m/s gusting to 7m/s on a norwegian website. He is very excited about their speed